Oct 23, 2017
Composer Chats: Grammy Contender Brian Byrne Takes Us Behind His Latest Album,
Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne has uplifted many projects over his professional career as a composer, conductor, songwriter, arranger and pianist Hailing from Ireland, Brian moved to Los Angeles where he has become a go-to choice...
Sep 22, 2017
Fred Hersch plays Leaves of Grass at Jazz at Lincoln Center (concert review)
The brilliant pianist and composer gave a rare performance of his long-form masterwork last week, setting the poetry of Walt Whitman magnificently to musicBefore a note was played last Friday night, pianist and composer Fred Hersch went out of...
Sep 20, 2017
Jazz Notes: Berklee Hosts a Gala Honoring Jazz Impresario Fred Taylor and the Stars Come Out
In all his years as the legendary music promoter of the Boston area and cultivator of many renowned jazz musicians and contemporary artists, Fred Taylor hardly expected someone to be promoting musical acts for his benefit But on the evening of...
Aug 18, 2017
A exciting new take on Charlie Parker’s classics
This is some piece of work Anyone who knows the ins and outs of jazz recording would have every right to dread the result of this, produced by the prodigious Larry Klein On this tribute to the epochal bebopper who died 62 years ago Klein put...
Aug 03, 2017
Upward Spiral concert review: Warsaw Summer Jazz
Warsaw Summer Jazz, which ran from 6 - 9 July, is a fairly recent offshoot of the much longer-established Warsaw Jazz Jamboree held each November by the same promoters The venue was a converted factory in a large arts complex just outside...
Aug 02, 2017
Upward Spiral concert review: Anything but standard
Grammy-award winner Branford Marsalis and his Branford Marsalis Quintet were originally scheduled to appear at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts back in May, but due to flight difficulties, this performance was rescheduled to July...
Jul 17, 2017
Branford Marsalis Quartet with Kurt Elling, Barbican, London: Charisma and lyricism
When Branford Marsalis invited Kurt Elling to record the album Upward Spiral with his long-running quartet, he gained a front-line partner as well as a charismatic vocal lead Elling doesn't just interpret a song, he inhabits it, drawing...
Jul 12, 2017
CD Review: The Passion of Charlie Parker
This intriguing and highly original project seeks to do several things at once: first, and rather belatedly, to mark the 60th anniversary of Bird's death (which fell in 2015); second, to weave his best-known tunes together into a...
Jul 06, 2017
The Passion of Charlie Parker review: An unexpected triumph
On paper, this doesn't sound promising: a series of Charlie Parker compositions sung by today's best-selling jazz vocalists, with lyrics based on Parker's life story It's a tribute to the personnel involved that it works so...
Jun 22, 2017
International Jazz Extravaganza: memorable shows, haphazard production
International Jazz Extravaganza chief executive Sindile Xulu loves to differentiate between the terms "extravaganza" and "festival" At a Durban press conference to welcome musicians to the second annual event, she again makes the...
Jun 12, 2017
The Passion of Charlie Parker: New Album Narrates Charlie Parker’s Life in Song
On June 16, Impulse!/Verve will release The Passion of Charlie Parker, an album of iconic Parker songs transformed through the addition of lyrics to create a musical play that narrates Bird's life Produced by Larry Klein with lyrics by...
Jun 09, 2017
Goldenhair: Brian Byrne sets up Close encounter with James Joyce
James Joyce, in a letter to his brother Stanislaus, discussing his yet to be published volume of poems, Chamber Music, wrote: "It is a young man's book I felt like that It is not a book of love-verses at all, I perceive But some of them...